Second quarter 2009: Pre-provision income before one-off items increased by 33 per cent compared with 2008

"SEB generated overall strong income growth and strengthened its customer franchise, particularly within wholesale banking. A robust balance sheet with a strong Tier 1 capital ratio will enable us to support our customers and reinforce SEB's market position in a difficult macro environment", says Annika Falkengren, SEB's President and CEO, commenting on today's interim report.

SEB's profit before provisions for credit losses and one-off items in the second quarter 2009 amounted to SEK 5,256m, an increase of 33 per cent compared with the second quarter of 2008 (3,954) and 10 per cent higher than the previous quarter (4,780).

One-off items in the quarter were the capital gain of SEK 1,300m on the partly repurchased own subordinated debt and the cost of SEK 2,317m from the write-off of all acquisition goodwill in the Baltic countries, which shall be seen in the light of the severe economic situation with lower lending volumes and a sharp increase of impaired loans. Also the acquisition goodwill of SEK 77m related to Russia has been written-off.

Including these one-off items the profit before provisions for credit losses amounted to SEK 4,162m (3,954). Operating profit was SEK 618m (3,507).

Operating income increased by 27 per cent to SEK 13,174m compared with the second quarter last year; excluding the capital gain by 14 per cent. Net interest income improved by 21 per cent and other income items by 9 per cent on an aggregated level excluding the capital gain. The corresponding numbers compared with the previous quarter was a decrease on net interest income by 9 per cent and an increase of other income items by 18 per cent on an aggregated basis.

Provisions for credit losses increased to SEK 3,567m, of which the majority was collective. The Baltic countries accounted for SEK 2,642m of the provisions. The credit loss level was 1.07 per cent (0.17). The Group's total reserve ratio was 72 per cent.

Tier I capital ratio was 13.1 per cent (10.2).

SEB is a North European financial group serving some 400,000 corporate customers and institutions and five million private individuals. SEB offers universal banking services in Sweden, Germany and the Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. It also has local presence in the other Nordic countries, Poland, Ukraine and Russia and a global presence through its international network in major financial centers. On 30 June 2009, the Group's total assets amounted to SEK 2,374bn (~EUR 220bn) while its assets under management totalled SEK 1,267bn (~EUR 120bn).The Group has about 20,500 employees. Read more about SEB at www.sebgroup.com.